rising into the air and making short circling flights, after which they suddenly drop down, one to 

 the nest, the other to a post of observation hard by. They will often dash down to the fields 

 below, sweep for a few minutes like a Harrier, and then, seizing one of the great black ground- 

 snakes or a Tropidonotus in a ditch, sit down and occupy some minutes in killing the reptile, 

 after which they carry their prize away in their claws, not, like many other Eagles, devouring it 

 on the spot." 



Captain Clark-Kennedy writes to me : — " Throughout the peninsula of Sinai I met with it in 

 very limited numbers, and saw two pairs in the Wadee Feiran, and several near the convent of 

 Mount Sinai and on Jebel Catherina, where the monks told us it bred ; but as it has never, so far 

 as I am aware, been known to nest on the ground, this statement is very unlikely to be correct." 

 In Egypt, according to Von Heuglin (Ibis, 1860, p. 412), it makes its appearance in pairs or small 

 flocks in the month of September, and goes upwards along the banks of the Nile to the prairies of 

 Kordofan, Sennaar, &c, where it stays during the winter, returning through Egypt in February and 

 March. It is not unfrequently seen during the autumn sitting on low hills and sand-banks, some- 

 times in shallow water hunting for reptiles which are driven out of their holes and retreats by the 

 increasing waters of the river. In the prairies this species is found sometimes at a very great 

 distance from water ; and single specimens appear to stay all the summer within the tropics, as I 

 infer from an individual which I killed in Eastern Sennaar in the middle of May." He also states 

 (J. f. 0. 1862, p. 39) that he obtained it in the Bogos country. Captain Clark-Kennedy, who also 

 observed this bird in Egypt, informs me that he " met with it not more often on the outskirts of 

 the desert than near the river Nile, and it appeared rather more frequently on the western bank 

 than the other; but to what reason to attribute this I can form no opinion. It generally 

 appeared in only very limited numbers, and could nowhere be termed common. It evidently 

 prefers hilly country, and was observed by myself in the desert country, about ten miles due 

 west of Edfou ; and about the same distance from Thebes, on the same side of the Nile, I found 

 it tolerably numerous among the mountains." Antinori met with it at Kordofan and on the 

 White Nile, and says (J. f. O. 1866, p. 123) that it is rare in Eastern Senaar, where it probably 

 comes from the Arabian coast. In North-western Africa it is common, and, according to Loche, 

 breeds numerously in Algeria. Canon Tristram only met with it once in the desert of Souf, but 

 says that the Arabs were well acquainted with it ; and Mr. Salvin, in his article on the ornithology 

 of the Eastern Atlas (Ibis, 1859, p. 182), writes as follows: — "The first time I met with this 

 species was just on entering the Arab village of Testour, between Tunis and Kef. One flew over 

 my head, and, coming between me and the sun, threw a shadow which attracted my attention. 

 I brought it down by a lucky shot without dismounting from my horse. A few days afterwards 

 another was killed. The Short-toed Eagle was observed on many occasions in all the districts 

 visited, but is perhaps more numerous about Souk Harras than elsewhere. The first nest of this 

 species we obtained was brought from Blad el Elma, a village to the south of Djebel Dekma; it 

 contained two eggs, both which had been incubated some time, so that the long bare tarsi and 

 large eyes of the embryo left little doubt as to the identity of the species. Of these eggs one 

 had slight indications of colouring, a feature I have never observed in other specimens. The 

 eggs are usually deposited in March; but some birds defer laying till April." Major Irby 

 informs me that it is plentiful in Morocco, and he took a nest near Larache in a lentiscus bush, 



